The University of Washington School of Law, and Vermont Law School, and Arctic Law Section of the Alaska Bar Association also served as supporting organizers. The theme of this year's symposium was "The Science, Scholarship, and Practice of Polar Law: Strengthening Arctic Peoples and Places".


Mara and I send our warm thanks for UAF’s collective contributions to making the Eighth Polar Law Symposium an enormous success.  We wrapped up Saturday at UAA where, repeatedly, folks who’d attended the UAF portion referred frequently to the quality of the discussion in Fairbanks.  Our guests from around the world and our colleagues in the Alaska Bar all headed home with a better understanding of Alaska’s unique legal landscape and how it offers models to other parts of the Arctic.  We will be sure to thank UAF on tomorrow’s Hometown Alaska broadcast about the symposium.

Timo Koivurova, lead of the Thematic Network, noted, "I can personally say that I learned a lot and many scholars were very excited about the way the symposium was this time organized (focusing on science and law interface, Arctic law as practice and the benefit this can give to our communities).”

The 9th Polar Law Symposium will return to its original institutional home next  at the University of Akureyri from 5–10 October, 2016. Download the announcement flyer for more information.